Bob Haase’s Another Can of Worms

It’s Winter Driving Time!

On Monday morning I drove to Van Dyne to help with the Van Dyne Sportsman’s Club gun sight in program that they offer every year.  On the way there it started to snow and the temperature dropped rapidly from 35 degrees when I left Eldorado to 32 degrees when I got there.  The traffic on highway 41 was still going 70 plus miles per hour.  Nobody seemed to slow down with the wet roads and dropping temperatures. 

One thing I really like is being able to see a readout of the outside temperature on a car so that I can slow down when the temperature drops close to freezing when the roads are wet.  We all know that that road conditions can change in just a few minutes and become ice covered and slippery and yet many people fail to slow down.

A couple years ago I was traveling to Appleton for a fly fishing program called “Cabin Fever Days” and slowed down because it was close to the freezing mark and the roads were wet.  As we got a little north of highway 76 on highway 41 I slowed down even more and was following a county salt truck spreading salt.  The truck slowed way down and cars were passing the truck in the passing lane like they were driving on dry pavement.  The truck slowed so much that I decided to pass the truck and as I got along side of the truck I realized that we were on glare ice.  I was not going very fast and was able to keep my car under control.  All the vehicles that had passed the truck going so fast  were all spinning off the road and into the ditch.  Because I was only going about 20 miles per hour at that time I was able to slow without hitting my brakes and keep my car under control and on the road. 

The point I am trying to make is that most of us know that we need to  slow down with changing winter driving conditions but yet many people have to learn all over every year what happens when you don’t.  For the safety of yourself and others, please slow down when conditions change.  Living in Wisconsin we sometimes end up driving on roads that are slippery and snow covered and it is sometimes faster to slow down and get there rather than going faster and ending up in the ditch. 

Bob Haase is the host of “Outdoors Thursday” heard Thursday mornings at 9:10 a.m. on News-Talk 1450 KFIZ.